Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2022

46 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING by NOIRLab Charles Blue Sharpest image ever of Universe’s most massive known star A stronomers have yet to fully understand how the most massive stars — those more than 100 times the mass of the Sun — are formed. One particularly challenging piece of this puzzle is obtaining observations of these gi- ants, which typically dwell in the densely populated hearts of dust- shrouded star clusters. Giant stars also live fast and die young, burn- T his is an illustration of R136a1, the largest known star in the Universe, which resides inside the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Mag- ellanic Cloud. By harnessing the ca- pabilities of the 8.1-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile, a team of astronomers has obtained the sharpest image ever of this colossal star. [NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine] ing through their fuel reserves in only a few million years. In compar- ison, our Sun is less than halfway through its 10 billion year lifespan. The combination of densely packed stars, relatively short lifetimes, and vast astronomical distances makes distinguishing individual massive stars in clusters a daunting techni- cal challenge. By pushing the capa- bilities of the Zorro instrument on